Why Would You Spend $1.5 Million On The Christina Aguilera Pics Again - After the Issue Bombed on the Newsstand?

Dear Larry Hackett,

This morning’s New York Post reports that your cover featuring Christina Aguilera with her new baby did not sell well on the newsstand.

How much did you spend on those pictures?  Around $1.5 million, according to industry estimates.

Usually, you sell around 1.5 million copies on the newsstand and this week will be a HUGE disappointment with this issue tallying around 1.3 million newsstand copies.

Last week I mentioned that I could tell you were not confident in this cover.  Why?  You put the nursery on the cover instead of focusing solely on Xtina and her baby.

And now your response to the poor sales is “I’d do the deal again in a minute.”  Are you kidding me?

That’s like saying I lost $1.5 million dollars on RED and I’d do it again.  (This was the best gambling analogy I could come up with.)

You’re obviously under a lot of pressure and so is the entire category.  But, spending this type of money on this type of star is a BIG mistake.   It would be refreshing if you actually admitted that - but then we’d be living in a world based on reality and not perception.

I understand that you believe it’s important for People Magazine to buy these pictures so upstarts like OK Magazine and copycats like US Weekly don’t get their hands on them.     

Unfortunately, for People Magazine, this type of spending time and time again will ultimately lead to disaster! 

And now I hear that you’re thinking of spending between $4-6 million for J. Lo’s baby pics.   I advise that you step back for a minute and think about that before you do it.  

J. Lo is not the newsstand queen from two to three years ago.   This astronomical price would only be worth it if you have record breaking sales.  

And, I don’t see that happening.

xoxo
Mark